AN OUR MANLY BUSINESS INTERVIEW

Just Opened Manly Business Centres' Gerry Williams

Our Manly asks Manly Business Centres' founder Gerry Williams about the benefits of “serviced” and “virtual” offices in Manly.

The long time IT professional used serviced offices in Australia and Asia and saw a demographic need in Manly. The benefit to small business owners and entrepreneurs – reduced overheads, flexible duration, networking opportunities and professional front desk and bookkeeping support services are enormous.

The  Manly Business Centre is the first and only purpose-built virtual and serviced offices in Manly. 

Gerry Williams: It’s the office you have when you don’t have an office. Virtual means that to anyone else it would appear you have an office and from a productivity perspective you have the equipment of an office. There are a few components to it. One is image. You will have a business address and we’ll collect your mail every day. We can hold it for you or if you want we can open it and tell you what is in it. We’ll keep it if you want to wait and collect it or we can forward it on to you. You bear a day’s delay in getting your mail but it has the presence and perception of a professional business address.

The next is mobile phones and voicemail are all very well but what we ensure is that your phone will always be answered by a human being -- which is a level of service higher than what a lot of small organisations’ and tradesmen, those who wish to concentrate on their core business and leave reception to us.  We’ll answer your phone and answer in your name, we’ll understand a little about your business, we’ll take messages and we’ll give your callers whatever message you want. It could be that you stepped out of the office, are tied up in a meeting for an hour, whatever. The key thing is we assure the caller you will get back to them. We’ll then either email or SMS you with the message. The key thing is that there are no more missed calls, people hanging up because they don’t want to leave messages.

O M: How is the “virtual office” like a typical office space? Meeting rooms, internet and so on?

G W: We have hot desks, meeting rooms and a board room, so if you do need to use the internet or you’ve got to catch up on some admin or paperwork you can use a meeting room or hot desk. And if you do need to meet a customer or client at the Manly Business Centre, we will meet and greet your visitor and escort them to a meeting room, so they need not know you don’t actually have an office here.

O M: What is the difference between a “virtual” office and a “serviced” office?

G W: A serviced office means you are an actual tenant at the Manly Business Centre. You have your own office space, which in general, is more flexible than a longer term rental. You can rent it for anything longer than 6 months. We meet and greet your clients, and you can use our boardroom meeting rooms. If you take our telephone service we’ll answer using your company name, all the same call services, with the added benefit to you of a fully furnished office, no expenses over and above your rental, phone and internet costs. So all your normal office bills disappear. You don’t pay a receptionist, a cleaning bill, utilities and so on.

Our Manly: Who is the serviced office ideally suited? The lone tradesman, someone who is typically in the field?

G W: The demographic groups vary. It could be the person with a home office that wants to take the next step but doesn’t want to commit to the overhead or doesn’t have the cash for it. Another demographic are small organizations who want to be in a professional working environment. They may well have 2 or 3 people at the Centre who, if they had an office on their own would otherwise be isolated from the social mix, access to boardrooms and so on.

Other serviced offices will have corporate overflow, big companies that need temporary space for a three month project, for instance. We don’t expect that kind of demographic in Manly. We are not in a corporate headquarter area. The Manly Business Centre will attract start-ups seeking out a home, one man bands who are going to remain one man bands, perhaps accountants, possibly lawyers, mortgage brokers, web developers -- those that need a professional environment but aren’t big enough or ready to incur all the overhead.  

O M: How do customers, clients and potential business partners react to the environment of a serviced office? Does it detract from the professional atmosphere, the legitimacy of a traditional office? Or does it embellish the image of professionalism?

G W: We do not carry a lot of branding in the office; we try to enable our tenants to present the Centre as being their offices so in fact they may have people popping in to see them who don’t realize they occupy only one or two offices on the floor. So the perception may be that they are a lot more successful than they really are. Generally, I think the perception is positive. We try and help that perception by growing the synergy between our tenants. If we have someone who is a web developer or a draftsman or a lawyer we will advertise that as part of our offerings, so if a lead comes in for a developer or draftsman or lawyer, we will pass that lead on to our tenant. We are looking to grow a community within the Manly Business Centre.

O M: How does administrative support for bookkeeping and secretarial services work? What about confidentiality of sensitive business information, for instance?

G W: We are happy, the staff and myself, to sign confidentiality agreements, but beyond that, we look after our client’s interests. We don’t leave client’s faxes lying around, we collect them regularly and deliver them to the offices. We don’t have pigeon boxes at the reception area but in fact personally drop off mail and faxes to the office as it comes in.

In terms of secretarial services anything of a confidential nature would not go past the person who initially deals with it.

O M: Since it’s not the typical relationship an employer would have with an employee, how does the “boss” behave toward Manly Business Centre employees? What if there is a problem, say a personality clash?

G W: Wow, that is an interesting one, Paul! In terms of the general ethos within the Centre we actually have a contractual arrangement with our tenants. My instructions to our solicitor were, “I need a legal document with as little legalese in it as possible”. Very clearly and right up at the front of the contract is written that we expect our tenants to behave in a courteous manner to other people on the floor, other tenants and to the Manly Business Centre staff.

To answer your specific question I think I would have to intervene and draw upon my many years of general management experience and try and work the issues through and find a positive resolution. Which is more than adjudicating, which doesn’t get anywhere, but understanding better how to service our tenant’s needs, make sure we are clear on everyone’s expectations and to make sure our tenants are clear as to what we can really do for them.

O M: I imagine Manly Business Centre employees must be quite adept at a variety of tasks; they must wear many hats!

G W: Absolutely, they have to be loyal and capable staff for the Centre, but they need to be able to do that for all the tenants. Together with professional secretarial work there is the added logistics of diaries, who’s meeting who and when, scheduling meeting rooms, who wants tea and coffee and who doesn’t want any catering. There’s a fair bit to it. The key is professionalism; the good word will spread but any kind of inappropriate behavior or actions will spread even faster through the tenant community.

O M: What really sets the Manly Business Centre apart?

G W: It’s that ethos of everybody getting along and enjoying coming to work. At the Manly Business Centre coming to work everyday is a pleasure. It’s a professional environment within a relaxed atmosphere. Within the traditional seaside Manly environment, the Manly Business Centre is a place where you can be as productive as possible, work efficiently, have a place which people realize is a very business oriented environment. But we also want to have the odd barbecue out on the balcony, have a few drinks evenings. When the boardroom isn’t being used and there is a big sporting event we’ll turn the big screen on.

Interviewed by Paul Oscar Hamilton